PayNearby partners Grameen Foundation India for rural business development – Times of India

Branchless banking and digital network, PayNearby has announced its partnership with the Grameen Foundation for Social Impact (GFSI) to upskill 150,000 business correspondents (BCs) across India. The collaboration aims to provide digital and financial services to the underserved and tech-shy last-mile population. This will strengthen rural BC counters with long-term viable business solutions and make them sustainable change agents at the grassroots level.The partnership will also work towards providing employment opportunities to the women and youth of India.
New project to upskill rural employees
As part of this collaboration, PayNearby and GFSI will launch a pan-India scale-up project titled ‘Scaling Agent Viability and Quality in India’ supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The initiative will be completed over the span of the next two years.
It marks a step towards amplifying the impact of BCs in enhancing financial accessibility across the country, by expanding their financial product offerings beyond traditional cash-in and cash-out services. The expanded product suite will increase customer retention and empower these correspondents to generate supplementary income streams.
This collaboration between PayNearby and GFSI is not only a step in expanding financial accessibility but also an initiative for empowering women within the financial sector. This initiative places an emphasis on skill enhancement among BCs and also gender sensitivity.

By offering the necessary skills, knowledge and support, this initiative will offer opportunities for both rural BC counters and women’s professional growth and financial empowerment. The goal is to enlist 15,000 female BC agents, thereby promoting gender inclusivity within this sector.

Under this initiative, GFSI will leverage PayNearby’s Distribution-as-a-Service network to streamline operations and enable BCs to offer a diverse range of tailored digital and financial solutions across domains such as commerce, education, entertainment, credit management, insurance and more.
In addition to the capacity building, PayNearby will also invest in awareness and upskilling of this network to enable multiple digital and financial services through local counters. BCs will be made aware of the financial advantage of a diversified product portfolio, and how more loyalty and value per customer can be derived through that.